History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v4.c62.352.2

v4.c62.352.2

192 prescribes that the king should respect the usages and conventions of occupational guilds, merchants, heretical sects, and groups (corporations &c.) and allow them to pursue the course of action they had followed from ancient times. Nārada (samayasyānapākarma, verses 2-6) and Bṛhaspati quoted in the Vīramitrodaya (vyavahāra) contain very important directions as to what conventions of guilds the king should respect and what he is not bound to respect. Nārada says that the king should enforce the conventions agreed upon by heretic sects, naigamas (merchants), śreṇīs and other groups residing in the country or the capital. The king may allow them to follow their special rules (e. g. speaking the truth), their special actions (begging in the morning without having taken a bath), their mode of meeting (on hearing a drum being beaten), the means of livelihood they have been used to (e. g. dressing as an ascetic). But the king should prohibit (out of their usages and conventions) such as are opposed to the king's interest, or are disapproved of by the people in general, would be ruinous to the purposes of the king. The king should not tolerate their creating factious groups among themselves, taking up arms for a purpose detrimental to the State, and causing injury to each other. The king should specially curb those who cause dissensions among the several groups;